The Qur’an reports the objections
The Prophet ﷺ was contested from the very beginning of his mission. The Qur’an did not erase these objections: it quotes them, in the words of those who raised them, and then it answers them.
“It is only a man who teaches him.”
﴿ وَلَقَدْ نَعْلَمُ أَنَّهُمْ يَقُولُونَ إِنَّمَا يُعَلِّمُهُۥ بَشَرٌ لِّسَانُ ٱلَّذِى يُلْحِدُونَ إِلَيْهِ أَعْجَمِىٌّ وَهَٰذَا لِسَانٌ عَرَبِىٌّ مُّبِينٌ ﴾“We know well that they say: ‘It is only a man who teaches him.’ But the tongue of the one they point to is foreign, and this is a clear Arabic tongue.”
“Legends of the ancients.”
﴿ وَقَالَ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوٓا۟ إِنْ هَٰذَآ إِلَّآ إِفْكٌ ٱفْتَرَىٰهُ وَأَعَانَهُۥ عَلَيْهِ قَوْمٌ ءَاخَرُونَ فَقَدْ جَآءُو ظُلْمًا وَزُورًا وَقَالُوٓا۟ أَسَٰطِيرُ ٱلْأَوَّلِينَ ٱكْتَتَبَهَا فَهِىَ تُمْلَىٰ عَلَيْهِ بُكْرَةً وَأَصِيلًا قُلْ أَنزَلَهُ ٱلَّذِى يَعْلَمُ ٱلسِّرَّ فِى ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ إِنَّهُۥ كَانَ غَفُورًا رَّحِيمًا ﴾“Those who disbelieve say, ‘This is nothing but a lie he has invented, and other people have helped him with it.’ In this they have committed injustice and falsehood. And they say, ‘Legends of the ancients, which he has had written down: they are dictated to him morning and evening.’ Say: ‘He who knows the secret in the heavens and the earth has sent it down. He is Forgiving, Merciful.’”
“A soothsayer, a man possessed, a poet.”
﴿ فَذَكِّرْ فَمَآ أَنتَ بِنِعْمَتِ رَبِّكَ بِكَاهِنٍ وَلَا مَجْنُونٍ أَمْ يَقُولُونَ شَاعِرٌ نَّتَرَبَّصُ بِهِۦ رَيْبَ ٱلْمَنُونِ ﴾“So remind: by the grace of your Lord, you are neither a soothsayer nor one possessed. Or do they say, ‘He is a poet; let us wait for the blow of fate to fall on him’?”
The challenge. To those who doubt, the Qur’an does not merely reply: it challenges them to produce its like.
﴿ وَإِن كُنتُمْ فِى رَيْبٍ مِّمَّا نَزَّلْنَا عَلَىٰ عَبْدِنَا فَأْتُوا۟ بِسُورَةٍ مِّن مِّثْلِهِۦ وَٱدْعُوا۟ شُهَدَآءَكُم مِّن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ إِن كُنتُمْ صَٰدِقِينَ فَإِن لَّمْ تَفْعَلُوا۟ وَلَن تَفْعَلُوا۟ فَٱتَّقُوا۟ ٱلنَّارَ ٱلَّتِى وَقُودُهَا ٱلنَّاسُ وَٱلْحِجَارَةُ أُعِدَّتْ لِلْكَٰفِرِينَ ﴾“If you are in doubt about what We have sent down upon Our servant, then produce a sura like it, and call your witnesses besides God, if you are truthful. And if you do not, and you never will, then fear the Fire whose fuel is men and stones, prepared for the disbelievers.”
These verses show a method. The objection is stated as the adversary stated it, without being weakened; the answer comes after. This section follows the same path.
The method of this section
Every page follows the same order.
- The objection, stated honestly, in its strongest terms, with those who hold it: Jewish and Christian readers, missionaries, historians.
- The answer, in several points, the strongest first; every fact points to its source.
- What the objection gets right, when part of it does: we say so, and we say why it does not reach the thesis.
- Further reading: the pages of the site that treat the subject in full.
Two principles govern the answers. Certainty comes from the Qur’an: it affirms that the Prophet ﷺ is mentioned among the People of the Book (7:157) and foretold by Jesus (61:6); identifying a biblical passage, by contrast, is an effort of interpretation (Ameri, p. 19-20). And an objection against one passage does not reach the whole: the prophecies hold together like the strands of a cord, not like the links of a chain (The convergence).
Finally, we ask for the same measure for all prophecies, those the Gospels apply to Jesus as well as those Muslims read of the Prophet ﷺ (Ameri, p. 51). The readings that do not stand up to examination we set aside ourselves, with our reasons (The readings we do not use).
The objections
On the prophecies of his coming ﷺ
- O.1 · “The prophecies were found after the fact, in a corrupted Bible”
- O.2 · “The prophet like Moses is Joshua, or Jesus”
- O.3 · “The Paraclete is the Holy Spirit”
- O.4 · “The covenant is reserved for Isaac”
- O.5 · “Paran is in Sinai, not in the Hijaz”
On his person ﷺ and the message
- O.6 · “He learned it all from Bahira, or from Waraqa”
- O.7 · “The revelation was a fit, or a possession”
- O.8 · “The Satanic verses”, the story of the gharaniq
- O.9 · “He composed the Qur’an himself”
- O.10 · “He wanted power, or wealth”
- O.11 · “He was sincere, but he was mistaken”
On his predictions ﷺ
Sources for this page
- Qur’an: Tanzil text (Uthmani); translation of the meaning by this site.
- Sami Ameri, al-Bishara bi-nabi al-islam fi kutub al-yahud wa-l-nasara, Takween, 2nd ed., 2021, p. 19-20, 51.